


Dreams and Promises

by Anxeastrife56



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Dream Eater Vanitas, Gen, M/M, Mention of Terra and Aqua, VanVen Week (Kingdom Hearts), Vanitas-centric (Kingdom Hearts), slightly editing canon to fit my needs, written for VenVan Week 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:40:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21895270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anxeastrife56/pseuds/Anxeastrife56
Summary: The only connections that Vanitas has are dreams that are not his own. Or a fic where Vanitas is Ventus is Dream Eater.VanVen Week Day 2: Promise
Relationships: Chirithy & Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), Vanitas/Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 31





	Dreams and Promises

**Author's Note:**

> I decided very last minute to participate in Vanven week so this is all very rushed.  
> I missed the first day but I will not be deterred!  
> I'm so thankful to my sister for putting up with my impulsiveness and helping me edit this into something remotely coherent!  
> This is the first fic that I'm ever publishing and I'm super nervous!  
> I hope you all enjoyed and please feel free to tell me what you think!

Vanitas had always been able to feel.

Emotion had never been a foreign thing to him. However, the concept of dreams had always eluded him. When he closed his eyes, alone in that graveyard, all he could see was an impregnable darkness. He believed that it was nothing but a consequence of his nature. For what could a creature born of darkness possibly have to dream of?

But soon enough that had all changed.

One night, as he slept, a warm light flooded the expanse of black behind his eyes, so blinding that Vanitas had thought the sun had risen. The warm light soon morphed into a symphony of color, nonsensical swirls of vibrant hues pooled in his vision with no regard for shape or purpose. And Vanitas stood in the epicenter of it, completely engulfed and swaddled in warmth.

Even in his waking life, the visions stayed with him, comforting him as he endlessly wandered the graveyard.

And for a while, every time he slept, he would return to that place. Allowing himself to be cloaked in the immense pleasure of the colors.

But the dreams did not stay like this. Eventually, the featureless swirls transformed into moving scenes. Things he had never seen before flashed in front of him, there one moment and gone the next. Moving so fast that his mind couldn’t even begin to comprehend what he was seeing.

Before long, the scenery had become static, although no less beautiful. Atop a billowing cliff, stood a magnificent golden castle, remarkably imposing yet tranquil and calm.

New figures suddenly swirled into existence before him. A girl with blue hair and a kind smile, a sturdy boy with a friendly and open face, and an older man with scars on his face and hair peppered with old age stood before him.

* * *

“Your other half is making great progress.” The Master stated. Vanitas could feel his roving golden eyes stare holes into his back. “A piece of his heart has been ripped out and already he begins to train.”

Vanitas did not respond, not knowing what The Master meant by telling him this.

“He has two companions as well. Pupils of Eraqus. An intelligent, blue-haired thing and a tall, well-built youth. I believe their names to be… Aqua and Terra.” Vanitas glanced quickly up at The Master, trying not to let the curiosity show on his face. He wasn't sure if they were the same people he had seen from his dreams. To dream of people he had never seen before with such startling accuracy couldn’t be possible.

If it were true, and he did have that ability, it would have to be someone else's dreams he was seeing. the dreams of the part ripped from him.

* * *

It wasn’t long before the entities began to appear in the dreams.

It seemed that as of late, all Vanitas saw were nightmares. Strange creatures that swarmed the dreams, distorting them beyond recognition. They changed the scenery, oscillating between visages of white stone buildings and cobble-lined streets to a mass of keyblade wielders fighting in the graveyard. Vanitas wasn't sure what any of this meant but it made him nervous. And the nightmares, with their red eyes and darkened hues, would zero in on the people in the dreams, attacking relentlessly.

Vanitas wasn't sure what it was that urged him to start hunting them down. They had cornered him one night, snarling aggressively. On a whim, he had summoned the keyblade, unsure whether it would actually kill the creatures. But it had. And in an instant, Vanitas could feel a palpable relief permeate the atmosphere around him. It was then that he knew that his actions had calmed Ventus, made him happy despite the great distance between them.

They were still connected.

So Vanitas continued to hunt them. Maybe it was to make Ventus happy, maybe it was to feel useful, a reprieve from The Master’s constant training, or maybe it was the feeling of being connected to someone. A feeling that was such a direct contrast against the crushing loneliness of every passing day.

He tried not to think about it too hard, for fear that The Master would find out and somehow destroy the one good thing he had in his worthless existence. So he kept it close and enjoyed it for as long as he could.

* * *

The day soon came when The Master had come to retrieve Vanitas, claiming that it was now time to act. He would finally get to meet his other half. He tried not to feel too much hope as the Master left him to watch the Mark of Mastery exam between Terra and Aqua. He was free to roam the castle as long as he wasn't seen.

He never got lost though, he knew this place as if it were his own home.

So he waited in the room that he knew belonged to Ventus. And after not being able to resist the urge of looking around, he was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't too different from the room in the dream. Although in recalling the swirling colors and points of light that danced on the walls, very obviously, less fantastical things line them. There was a high tower of books against the wall and numerous shelves with small knick-knacks arranged haphazardly. The whole room seemed as if someone had tried to convert a small library into a bedroom. The bed, pressed up against the far side window, was where Ventus laid every night to sleep.

Vanitas caught himself drifting over to the telescope. It was the only real item in the room that told him anything about his other half. He could recall with startling clarity the countless dreams where the navy sky glittered with stars. These dreams were always accompanied by a serene feeling. It would wash over him as he laid there by the cliff’s edge, committing the constellation to memory like he felt Ventus had.

A part of him wondered if he would ever be able to do that in real life. To sit with Ventus on a night like that one and just forget the world.

Together.

Vanitas was disrupted from his snooping by the door loudly creaking open. He tried not to jump as Ventus walked through the door with his head lowered and a sullen expression on his face. Seeing him for the first time in years, Vanitas doesn't want to acknowledge the nervous rolling in his gut. 

So he watches quietly as Ventus sighs and looks up and his sad expression morphing into one of surprise.

“What the…? Who are you?”

The question takes a beat to process. Ventus looks at him like he is a stranger and Vanitas can only stare back at him in confusion.

“Wait you don't…”

“Don't what?” Ventus asked, backing further away from Vanitas.

“You don't know who I am?” He finished, chest aching, as seeds of panic began to plant themselves in his stomach, the air inside his mask feeling like it was suffocating him.

Ventus’ head cocked to the side, confusion flitting across his features.

“Should I know you?”

The question is stinging. And Vanitas feels like he’s been slapped and reels back. There was no way that Ventus could be so unaware, so clueless….

He had spent years purging the nightmares from Ventus' dreams and he didn’t even know who he was. In Ventus’ world, Vanitas didn’t even exist. If nothing he did matter in Ventus' life then he had no real reason for existing outside forging the X-blade. It seems the Master had been right all along. 

  
“No…of course you wouldn't know me...” he replies, bitingly.

Something acrid and virulent rises in his throat as he recites the words The Master told him.

“But you better hurry Ven or you’ll never see Terra again…”

* * *

“So now that you’ve met your other half, what do you make of him?”

Vanitas stared at Master Xehanort’s face and the grip on his helmet tightened, “He ain't gonna cut it for that plan of yours. Right now he doesn't remember anything and somebody is gonna have to break that loser in if he’s gonna be of any use to you.”

The Master chuckled. “You are a fool. Memories sleep within dreams and taking those dreams away, no matter how nightmarish, will erase those memories.”

Vanitas can't decide if he is shocked that The Master knew. It seemed like he always knew exactly what was going on with the people who were of use to him. But even so, Vanitas can't stop the question from bubbling up. “So you knew? About me and Ventus?”

“Of course. And it worked so well in my favor, keeping him oblivious to his past.” He then turned to Vanitas, appraising him, “And you won't be 'breaking him in' here; I have to keep up appearances.” With his piece said, Master Xehanort slowly walks away.

He was such an idiot. Vanitas had thought he had been helping Ventus all this time, keeping the nightmares from plunging him deeper into darkness. But he hadn’t. He’d just been helping the very man he hated the most.

* * *

The last thing Vanitas remembered was standing before Ven and Sora in the Keyblade Graveyard, the cold darkness enveloping his body as he stared at the empty sky. It had seemed so laughably appropriate that he had been born and would die in this place. But he hadn't laugh. The last notes of Sora's cry echoed loudly in his ear as he saw the last bit of the sky. Then it had been quiet.

So when he opened his eyes to a sky so blue and wide, he could’ve cried, but all he could do was stare listlessly.

He would have laid there forever if he could, feeling the cool water soak his back and send a chill into his spine if it had not been for the small voice that spoke up.

“The name’s Chirithy. You’re in the Final World.”

“I didn’t ask.” Vanitas turned his head slightly to see the funniest looking creature he had ever laid his eyes on. He couldn't help comparing its appearance to the unversed. Although this creature was way too cutesy to be anything like them. It was much rounder and softer looking.

The little creature huffed. “Hey! No need to be rude!”

Vanitas smirked at it’s admonishing tone. There was something surreally funny about being scolded by a small plush toy in what seemed to be the afterlife.

The creature studied him briefly before saying, “You still have your body.”

That statement managed to pique his curiosity.

“Should I not have my body?” He had faded into darkness so he supposed it would have made more sense for him to be without one.

“No!” The little thing squeaked. “You are a dream spirit, after all.”

The words were unfamiliar to him but for some reason admitting that he didn't know what the thing was talking about was something he didn't want to do. Still laying on his back, he turned his face to look up at the sky again.

“What does that have to do with anything?” he questioned.

“Since the edges of sleep and death are connected it makes sense that you would retain your form even here.”

“So why didn't I just fade into nothingness then?”

“Your connection to someone’s dreams is holding you here, just like me.”

"Well that sucks"

“So..” the creature intones, stepping closer to where he laid. It waited silently, for what, Vanitas wasn't sure. A few seconds passed before he finally decided to inquire with a sigh.

“Alright, I’ll bite. What?”

“You never told me your name.”

That had completely slipped his mind. He guessed that after 'dying' something so minuscule as his name didn't seem very important. 

“It’s Vanitas” He quipped, slowly moving to sit up.

“Well Vanitas, you’re getting this a lot quicker than another visitor I had earlier...he was much nicer though.”

“What, did you think I was an idiot then?” None of this had been particularly hard to understand, all things considered.

“A little..." The creature is honest in a rude way that Vanitas enjoyed. "You do look a lot like he did ...but that attitude of yours could use some work.”

“Yeah, like I'm taking advice from a plush toy.” he sneered back, no real malice in his tone.

The toy didn't even bother to look offended and sighed, “See, you just proved my point.” A few beats of silence pass as they both look ahead to the expansive horizon.

“So why are you here anyway? Did you fade too?” He isn't sure why he wants to ask. Maybe the novelty of being able to sit and talk with someone hadn't worn off yet. 

“No, more like I’m waiting for someone. But he doesn't remember me.”

There is a hint of quiet acceptance in its voice and that made Vanitas perk up in attention. “How do you know you’ll see him again?” He asked, genuinely curious.

“Everyone comes here eventually.”

At that, he couldn’t help snickering, “That's pretty morbid for something so cute.”

“It’s true!” it huffed and he continued to laugh at the flailing creature.

Vanitas could understand how the toy felt better than anyone though. Waiting on someone who didn't remember you was painful. He remembered the constant nights spent in Ventus’ dreams, wondering how much the boy knew about him.

“Well now you don't have to wait alone, I guess.” he said, hesitating a bit before he continued, “And when you’re ready, we can find your someone together.”

Vanitas wasn't sure why he had said this to the little thing, but it was worth it to see the look of pure shock on its soft, plushy face.

“Are you serious?”

“What? You don't want to?”

A brief pang of nervousness shot through him as he looked away from the creature.

“No, no, it just seemed like something that would come from a friend.”

Vanitas scoffed as if that was obvious, cheeks slightly warm.“Well, I guess that's what we are.”

The toy looked dubious for a moment.

“You promise?” it asked, with hope somehow apparent on its round face.

Vanitas honestly didn’t know whether it was talking about finding the person together or being friends, but ultimately decided that that didn’t matter, either way, as he replied.

“I promise.”

* * *

“Are you sure he's here?” Vanitas asked, hiding behind a pile of rocks as Chirithy sat atop his head. He could feel it nervously carding its paws through his hair.

“Yes, I’m sure! Have I ever given you any reason to doubt me.”

Even with the cocky assurance, Vanitas knew that he didn't want to be here for long. Being back in the Land of Departure filled him with dread. He wanted to leave, return to the quiet of the Final World, but Chirithy wanted this, wanted to be here. So he would stay.

“That's him! I see him!”

Vanitas snapped out of his thoughts and peeked over the rock to look. He had always been curious about the person that Chirithy belonged to. The creature didn't talk much about him, and he was never the type to pry for information.

He had thought up a whole list of suspects in his head but nothing prepared him for the reality. He recoiled in fear when he spotted a familiar mop of blond hair.

“Whoa whoa whoa, what's the matter?” Chirithy asked as he felt it try to adjust itself from his sudden movement.

His mouth is dry as he mumbled out a small, “Ventus.”

That made the toy still. Vanitas slowly lowered himself to sit with his back against the rocks.

“You know him?” it asked and Vanitas could practically see it’s head tilted in disbelief.

And innate parts of him wanted to deny his fear, to deny knowing Ventus. After all that anger and violence, how could he possibly face him again? But there was no use lying to Chirithy.

“Yeah.”

“Were you also waiting for him?”

That took him off guard. Had he been waiting for Ven? A part of him once again wanted to deny it, deny the need to be seen by him, to be acknowledged for what they were to one another. But Vanitas didn't want to be just nothing to him. They had a connection, two people torn apart but connected by dreams. 

“I guess I was,” he admitted.

“So we can go over together!”

“No, I don't think I should,” Vanitas mumbled, slowly getting up to back away from the hiding spot.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, why are you leaving? Don’t leave!”

It patted Vanitas' head gently, bringing him out of his panic. He paused for a second, taking stock of the emotions swirling in his head. The fear and panic won over the faint excitement that he felt was there too.

“He wouldn't want to see me! I hurt him and his friends.”

Chirithy was silent for a minute.

“You hurt Ven?” And for a brief moment, shame washes over him at the plush toy’s disbelieving tone.

“But he is the one you were waiting for, right? You’re his dream spirit too!”

“I know!” he snapped, “I wanted to be of use to him, but Xehanort used me as a part of his plan and I let him...I hurt Ventus.”

He knew that snapping at it would do nothing to alleviate the situation, would just make the little creature snap back at him. He waited for the reaction, for Chirithy to tell him off-

“He’ll forgive you.”

Vanitas’ head reared up in surprise. What? How? After everything he had done? He watched Chirthy as it hopped down from his head, landed in front of him, and started to walk forward slowly as if waiting for him to follow.

“You… you don't even know the whole story. How can you say that?”

“Easy. I might not know everything but I don't need to.” Chirithy stated in a matter of fact tone, “You are a good person, I can tell.” It looked directly into Vanitas’ eyes, “And Ven is good too. So, let's go together. You did promise after all.”

Chirthy held out its paw as it walked over to Vanitas. He hastily wiped at his face as he couldn’t hold back the tears that threatened to burst forward. He hoped it didn't see him cry. He would never hear the end of it.

“This is so dumb,” he muttered as he took the paw offered to him. “Let's get this over with.”

Vanitas saw Chirithy smile as they both walk forward to finally face their promised person.

**Author's Note:**

> God the ending is abrupt. Still haven't decided if I like it that way or not but oh well!  
> Honestly, this kinda morphed into mostly Chirithy and Vanitas interaction. I didn't know I needed it until I wrote it tbh. I'm trying to get a handle on writing Vanitas, but I think I wrote him a lot softer than he is in canon. Chirithy was fun to write though!  
> I feel like a jumped around so much because I had so many thoughts on how I wanted the story to go.  
> The next stories will have much more Vanitas and Ventus interactions so please look forward to that!
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
